Brad Turing
Brad H.Turing (b. 1 April 1979) is a muggle-born wizard and the Co-Astronomy Professor here at Hogwarts. Brad is an enthusiastic and proud Hufflepuff, it is generally not a good idea to insult Hufflepuffs when he is in earshot - which he usually is as he has a knack of popping up unexpectedly (or as the Astronomy PA's have coined "poofing"). He adores learning and teaching Astronomy to all his pupils, and growing up he had a distaste for learning wizarding history (he particularly did not like his History Professor, one of the “Senior” ranked professors) - preferring to learn muggle history once he got to Cambridge. Early Life Brad Turing was born on 1 April 1979 in Fairbanks, Alaska, he is the only child of Raymond and Deborah Turing (Schwartz) and as such was deeply loved by both his mother and father. Brad’s parents named him after his paternal grandfather. Brad’s father, Raymond, a retired police officer, spent his entire lifetime serving the community of Fairbanks. He is of English, Irish, and Native Alaskan descent, and he is a convert to Judaism. The Turing family lived in Fairbanks for generations. Deborah Turing (nee Schwartz), Brad’s mother, was a Jewish American woman who was originally from New York City. Deborah, like many of her ancestors, served her country in the armed forces - she was an officer in the US Air Force. When she died while in the service, Brad and his father were deeply affected. Wizarding School Life On Brad’s eleventh birthday, a representative from the only Alaskan wizarding school to exist visited the Turing household and presented the family an invitation for Brad to attend it. Brad’s father Raymond was reluctant to send his only son off to some magical school, he was afraid that he would never see him again. He told these officials who came to their house that he would not be sending Brad off to their school. Ultimately it culminated in the wizarding school officials simply waiting till Brad was at muggle school before they came in and whisked him off to their school - they couldn’t have an underage, untrained wizard running around after all. Once at the school, Brad was happier than he had been in his whole school life. He missed his father of course but overall he enjoyed the experience. Upon his return home for the first school holiday Brad’s father was just as happy to see his son again - and even happier once he heard just how how happy Brad was at the school. He was thrilled to hear about how his son was no longer bullied as much as he had been in his muggle school and more open to the idea of his son continuing to attend wizarding school. Brad was involved with Quidditch, and eventually became the Seeker on this school team. Quidditch was not only a great opportunity for Brad to have a fun time, but it also brought him new opportunities - often in the most unexpected of places. In Brad’s fifth year, the Quidditch team went to the a wizarding school in Siberia to play an exhibition game. Students from his school were allowed to visit the Siberian school to watch the game. The game went on without incident. However, in the dance that followed the game, Brad’s friend Tim got into a fight with a few of the Siberian students. Brad joined the punch-up, whooped a few of the Siberians, and - after they both went back to Alaska - ended up in detention alongside Tim. After the two had served detention together, Tim repaid the favour by teaching him how to dance, and not just any type of dancing, Tim taught Brad a traditional Athabascan dance. The two boys had to do this in secret, in the dead of night (after lights out) in the boys dormitories. Thankfully they were never caught, if they had due to racial tensions at the time they would have received one whopper of a detention (likely from the History Professor). When some of the professors later on figured out what they had done, although they could not prove it, they were not impressed. Proof or not Brad, being the prankster he was and is, decided to teach his professors a thing or two and pranked these professors. University Life After graduating from the Alaskan Wizarding School Brad chose to apply to several muggle universities, wanting to get out of the Wizarding world in Alaska as soon as possible. He was accepted into Cambridge where he got a B.A in History, while also taking the only Astronomy course available at the time (a basic one). After graduating from Cambridge Brad was forced by the economy to go back to Alaska. He eventually found employment as a janitor at a planetarium which was as he calls it “a blessing in disguise”, because he on his off days he was able to attend planetarium showings (as many as possible). Eventually he was able to start going to school part-time, while still working full-time, and managing to graduate with a degree in Astronomy. He then moved on to graduate school in Astronomy, it was after giving his masters thesis on Cosmology at a conference that he met his friend Dax and was asked to come to Hogwarts to help him teach Astronomy. Hogwarts Career/Life It was 2014 Brad’s friend and colleague Dax Polgara, the head of Hufflepuff house and Astronomy department, approached Brad while at a conference and asked him if he would accept a position in the Astronomy Department at Hogwarts. Brad of course accepted and traveled from Alaska to Hogwarts to do so. Brad helps Dax to manage the Astronomy department, from writing lessons, to proofreading, helping to wrangle the troublesome Astronomy PA Team and keeping his coffee out of the reach of the team’s coffee stealing cat Dumbledore, and glitter wielding PAs. Rumor says that he has his own stash of glitter, but none of the PAs have ever found it. He also often can be seen disappearing into the Hogwart’s kitchen’s to bake some of his delicious chocolate chip cookies, which the Astronomy PA’s love of course. Now given Brad did not attend Hogwarts as a student upon entering Hogwarts as a Professor he had to undergo his own sorting Ceremony, which placed him in Hufflepuff. He proudly represents and defends his house. ''' '''Powers, Abilities, Special Skills and Interesting facts “Sneakiness” “Poofing” Master of Prank’s Athabascan Dancing Amazing BakerCategory:HiH Staff Category:Hufflepuff Category:Muggle-born